Amazon’s MatchBook aims to drag paper book fans into the digital age

Even some people who relish having the latest cutting-edge gadgets have had a hard time giving up their large collections of old-school paper books. Amazon is aiming to fix that, however, by unleashing its new MatchBook service that offers cheap digital copies of physical books that users have bought through Amazon in the past. There are a couple of caveats here: First, you can only get the eBook discounts on new books that you’ve bought through Amazon and not used books. And second, not every book you’ve ever bought through Amazon will be available at first, although with 70,000 books enrolled so far Amazon is certainly offering an impressive library. The company’s full press release follows below.

Kindle MatchBook Now Available – Over 70,000 Books Enrolled, and Counting

Kindle MatchBook offers customers the ability to buy the Kindle editions of print books purchased from Amazon for $2.99 or less

Enrolled titles include Life of Pi, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Johnny Carson, WOOL, The Alchemist, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and All-New X-MEN Vol. 1

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 29, 2013– (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Today, Amazon launched Kindle MatchBook, a new benefit that gives customers the option to buy-for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free-the Kindle edition of print books they have purchased new from Amazon. Over 70,000 books are enrolled in Kindle MatchBook, with more being added every day. Now customers can visit http://www.amazon.com/kindlematchbook to see all of their print books that are eligible for the Kindle MatchBook edition. Customers can also see when a book is eligible for Kindle MatchBook on the book’s detail page.

The program was announced on September 3 with over 10,000 titles. Since then, thousands of popular books like Heaven is for Real, The Things They Carried and The Way of Kings have been added from major publishers such as HarperCollins, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon Publishing, Wiley, Chronicle Books, and Marvel, as well as thousands of titles from Kindle Direct Publishing authors like The Walk by Lee Goldberg and Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder.

“It’s been great to see the positive response to MatchBook from both readers and publishers,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “MatchBook enrollment has grown from 10,000 to 70,000 titles in just a few weeks and we expect it will keep expanding rapidly in the months ahead.”

Kindle MatchBook features include:

Kindle editions at a great price: Amazon customers who purchase or have purchased qualifying print books can get the Kindle edition for prices that are $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free.

For book purchases dating back to 1995: Print purchases all the way back to 1995-when Amazon first opened its online bookstore-will qualify once a publisher enrolls a title in Kindle MatchBook.

Easy discovery: Readers can easily look up their entire print book order history to discover which of their past purchases are enrolled in Kindle MatchBook.

Popular Kindle-only features: As with regular purchases, Kindle MatchBook titles have unique features such as Whispersync, Popular Highlights and X-Ray.

KDP authors who have a corresponding print book on Amazon.com can enroll their titles in the program now at http://kdp.amazon.com. Authors that would like to create a print version of their book for free can visit http://www.createspace.com.